#Marlene Aralune

[luxshine]

Moon Knight Primer, Part Fifteen

Moon Knight (2016) #194 -200

Prologue, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII, Part XIII, Part XIV

Ok, so we arrived to the controversial part of the Bemis run, aka: the current official reason of the guys’ split, issue 194, titled: Moon Knight Origin.

I say current because as you may have noticed in the past 193 issues (Well, bit more than that, counting West Coast Avengers, Secret Avengers and Heroes for Hire), is that there’s never been a moment in which any writer has said “HERE, this is why Marc, and Steven and Jake exist”. We’ve had the vague “Oh, Marc created identities for his job and they became real” from Moench, except Moench never once treated Steven and Jake as less real than Marc so there was no… show to that tell. We’ve had the “Co-existing with an alien entity caused brain damage” from Ellis, but that also didn’t explain WHY Steven, Marc and Jake, nor which roles each played in the system. And Lemire, in his almost perfect run, only told us that they had been there for a lot longer than Khonshu, but never told us why -and, to be honest, I think that is part of what it makes Moon Knight very good general Plural Representation, besides the fact that there’s no “Evil” alter (at least not when Bemis is not writing, and even his Jake is not evil in the ways of, say, Typhoid Mary who is possibly the worst example of Plural Representation that the MU has) because it never said “THIS is how you become Plural and it’s the ONLY right way”.

Of course, Bemis had to be Bemis.  

And here I have to make another pause to explain some things because given the subject matter I can’t in good consciousness continue without giving you this info.

Maxim “Max” Adam Bemis is the lead singer of the bands Say Anything and Two Tongues, besides writing for Marvel. He is also jewish, and his maternal grandparents are holocaust survivors, he has called himself a Jew who is also a Christian, but the end of the day is that he is Jewish.

Which means that, no matter what I, a gentile, think about how he went about writing the System’s origin, I can’t say that he is “wrong” because he choose to do it this particular way, when he tied it completely to the Spector’s jewish roots. Because at the end of the day? It’s HIS experience, HIS culture and HIS roots too. Just as I can’t speak over the Plural community and have been careful to ask about the things I don’t quite get before launching into an analysis of the comic? I can’t speak over the Jewish community.

Who also happens NOT to be a hive mind.

I have jewish friends who really loved this origin and were angry that the tv show didn’t go this way (Even if they agreed it would’ve been also bad if they had used it since time-wise in the episode, it would’ve been a side note easily ignored. And, well, we don’t know if the writers included jewish people and including gentiles writing hate crimes against jewish people is always tricky); I have jewish friends who hated the origin and loved that the tv show went a completely different route as they also felt that this origin retreaded some nasty stereotypes. And I have jewish friends who couldn’t care less either way. Funny thing that happens when you have a community with more than one person in it, people will disagree.

So I will not make a moral judgment on this origin, because I can’t. I can assume certain things are highly auto-biographical -especially the way Marc learned about the Holocaust from his elders, how he at first didn’t quite understood how horrible it was- and a way for Bemis to explain his own feelings about his own faith (It all begins with Marc telling Jean Paul that if he could live without living in fear? He wouldn’t be jewish. Which… yeah, quite telling).  I can, and will, criticize the way he choose to narrate it, but not the content on itself because, again, not my place to do so.

And, for a change, I will start with the good things:

Jean Paul Duchamp and Marc’s friendship is back. And in a loving, sweet way in which we again see how close these two are, as Marc tells Jean Paul something he NEVER discussed with anyone: Not his parents, not his rabbi, not his (granted, terrible) doctors, not even MARLENE. That show of trust is part of what made Jean Paul’s Marc’s confident and I missed it so much.

The initial introduction of Rabbi Yitz Perlman -the funniest guy Marc ever met in his life- and the subsequent explanation of what it was like to grow up jewish, why jewish people love to make jewish jokes where they are the butt of the joke, how people had differing ideas and points. The page where Rabbi Elias finally tells Marc what the Shoah was, and how his father, Marc’s grand father died… well, that is powerful, even as we see that Marc is NOT getting it at first… especially because we see Marc is not getting it.

The subtle implication that Rabbi Elias himself disassociated at some points, made even more clear with Marc narrating that he wishes he could go back in time, to tell him that he understood? Wonderful and adding a little bit more depth to the System’s family ties. That Rabbi Spector is not just Marc’s father, but their Father. Unfortunately, that page also suggests that his father knew how bad Rabbi Yitz really was, which… is not supported by the rest of the story. Again, Bemis.

The juxtaposition of Marc FINALLY understanding what the holocaust really was, as a nazi serial killer tells him about how much he enjoyed working at the camps, with images of Marc imagining a happy and peaceful life with Marlene and Diatrice? One of the most powerful pages in the whole Bemis run.

And while Diatrice looks like a teen in the page where Marc explains to her the System’s condition and not like a 5 year old? That page is adorable, bit of ableist language not-withstanding, even with the callback to Marc not understanding the holocaust when his father explained it to him.

All that? Wonderful and some of the BEST in the whole Bemis run, right there with the System actually interacting in a healthy way.

The bad? Well, I will leave someone else, preferably someone who is actually jewish, to decide if “Nazi criminal pretending to be a Rabbi to escape to the USA, becoming a respected member of the community, while at least ONE person suspects or knows about his crimes -specifically our hero’s father- , tortures and kills children in his basement and witnessing this is what caused the Moon System to split” is a good narrative choice or a bad one. And the same goes to the fact that despite being a Nazi, some artists decided to draw Ernst as the worst antisemitic caricature possible.

HOWEVER, there is one very important thing that, added to what we already have read of Bemis? Makes this not only baffling, but also contradicts what Bemis himself wrote, not 4 issues ago.

See, as Marc narrates to Jean Paul what happened, right after the Nazi who pretended to be Rabbi Yitz tells him that people like him, like Mengele, like Hitler, will always be there, waiting to get them, we see Marc go wild, bite and hit the man, hard enough to be able to run away and save his life. And the narration of the next page says “I wasn’t strong enough to take him, I knew it, but in that moment I became… something else. I became strong enough to fight.”

So of course, the implication was that right then, we saw the first split: Not, as we always have been told, of Marc and Steven… but of Marc and Jake. There was no amnesia, no black out, no typical narration cue of disassociation… but the implication is clear: Jake came out, for the first time, to SAVE Marc’s life from something horrible.

And yet, Bemis will continue to tell us that Jake is the worst of the worst. A little boy, no older than 10, who only wanted to help his other self to Survive, to escape so he wouldn’t be tortured and killed? Is maligned and demonized through the whole run.

So yeah. That is why the Bemis’s origin leaves a bad taste in my mouth, regardless on how offensive or not the rest of it may be.

Well, that and the return to the song of “Marc is sick, that’s what makes the system be the system, and it’s so tragic he can’t be cured” that is implied all over the run despite Bemis also writing the system interacting beautifuly.

In any case, issues #195 to #196 are a quite disgusting affair, not because of the story, but because of the art and the villain. A collective consciousness called, well, the Collective, that is a mass of moving flesh that absorbs everyone it touches into themselves.

Once again, the good of these issues? The Inter-system interactions. From Marc completely zooning out in a movie to go fishing with his boys (And Khonshu fishing out Marlene’s disembodied head) to later on as they are separated within the Collective, how they work together to figure out the problem even if it meant staying in that unified mindscape with at least other 50 people besides them 4? Gorgeous -Steven giving Jake permission to knock out the real bad guy? Perfect given that it was not a “violence is the solution” but a “let’s be pragmatic about this, instead of just talking about it”.

Marc, Marlene and Diatrice going to the movies? Beautiful even if it should’ve been Jake and I will forever hate that Jake can’t be the father to his little girl.

But then… the bad.

The hard on hate on Jake keeps going on, like when Marc and Jake argue about Marc not killing Sun King and Bushman (this time). Because once again, every single time Moon Knight has killed Bushman in the past? Marc was fronting. And the fact that a writer of the series can’t even get that little fact straight really angers me. Especially when it’s one of the few writers who gets that Moon Knight is a system and not a singlet who occasionally changes names.

The continuous casual ableism of other characters referring to Moon Knight as “The crazy one” and, of course, bringing up that one time he ripped Bushman’s face off is still present, despite that one being MARC, not Jake. Oh, and Moon Knight’s identities as Marc, Steven and Jake? Are either only known by the police and the villains... or by everyone depending on the PAGE. Bemis is... not good at keeping track of that.

Oh, and the utterly bizarre.

Within the mind-scape of the Collective as I pointed out, the four guys (That is to say, Marc, Steven, Jake and Khonshu) are separated and Marc is, AGAIN, identified as the one who fronts as Moon Knight. But then the Collective allows him to “Create” new and different Moon Knights, all the “versions of themselves” that they have imagined and… some are downright confusing. As there are multiple female knights, a lot of non-humanoids, and at some point, they beat “Toxic Masculinity” by confronting the sufferer with multiple copies of Steven in a speedo.

I honestly don’t have the mental strength to try and unpack all what that says of BEMIS as a writer, because for Moon knight It is really treated as a one off joke that makes absolutely NO sense.

With that, we enter the last arc of the Bemis run, 197 – 200 which brings back Sun King, the Truth and that Nazi Rabbi who, I forgot to mention, keeps himself immortal by killing Jews. Not as a sacrifice to evil gods or anything, no. It’s that he found a way to turn serotonine into immortality and what he enjoys the most is killing jews.

Seriously, if Bemis was a gentile, he’d be run out of town with pitchforks and torches.

So, “Uncle Ernst” who for SOME ungodly reason knows that Moon Knight IS Marc Spector, the child that he traumatized so badly way back then? Is now the leader of a sadist underground cult and invites Moon Knight to a ceremony of sorts. Moon Knight goes, of course, to try and detain all the inductees (That includes a tattooist serial killer, a snuff photographer,  a mafia princess serial killer, and a “common” man who happens to be a serial killer and a mass murderer) and then forces Moon Knight to undergo a ritual to become the Society’s pet killer.

Yes, this is Bemis trying to be edgy for the sake to be edgy as he begins the ritual with Moon Knight (We never know who the hell is fronting, but given how Bemis writes? He probably wanted us to believe it was Jake) fighting and KILLING a “rabies infected” DOLPHIN, and then “Not killing”  a man who was “the worst case of animal cruelty in the history of California”.

Oh, he also gets diagnosed by YET ANOTHER super villain psychiatrist, in this case, Foolkiller, with Bipolarity and addiction to sadism, because why not just throw words at Moon Knight to see what sticks?

Morpheus returns and if this starts sounding like me summarizing an outline? Is because at this point I got out-edged.  Something that not even the 2006 run managed to do because THIS has Moon Knight crowned “A prince of Death” and decked with a purple version of his outfit.

I will come back to that in a second, when we continue my rant on how Bemis tried his best to ruin Jake completely, but I just want to point out that I can’t summarize issue 199 because I have no frigging idea of what was going on there besides a sort of metaphysical hallucination that Marc was having while fighting Ernst the Nazi that May or may not have happened in the real world because there were flying Cthulhus around, and Bemis was trying to be Lemire and failing HARD. (The only GOOD panel of that mess? Khonshu hugging and protecting Jake and Steven from the outside. It makes NO sense given that they should've helping Marc, AND that Bemis TOLD US that Khonshu doesn't like Steven or Jake but... I take the panel as something nice out of context)

The last issue, 200 is special only in the fact that they asked the previous Moon Knight artists to draw some pages each (not Greg Smallwood, thank goodness, because his art is way too good for this crappy script) including one last pinup by Bill Sienkiewicz of Marc in the rain.

Basically, Marc -because now we know it’s Marc- managed to kill Erntz in his hallucination in issue 199, then had to face Sun King again as he was freed by the Society of Sadists as an “ace in the hole” against Moon Knight, but for some reason, Sun King decided that nope, he’d rather team up with Marc against the Sadists, and they round out the crazy cult from the island who is now on Moon Knight side -Dr. Emmet included- and leave THEM to protect Diatrice while Marc, Sun Knight and Marlene for some reason, go and fight the Sadists and free the Truth, who was becoming a villain convinced that he had been created by Erntz, but they fixed that like, in one panel.

It is THAT bad.

And well, as I said? Bemis REALLY tries to demonize Jake Lockley every step of the way. During the “Prince of Death” trials? We’re SHOWN that Marc is fronting, as we see Khonshu -now for some reason identified as the spirit of the system-, Steven -identified as the mind- and Jake -The “roboust undercarriage” because he doesn’t get a fancy title- as witnesses for all of it as Marc “wanted to handle this himself”. Which means Marc Killed a Dolphin, tortured a man so badly that he made Foolkiller puke after he described his actions, and almost killed ALL of the Society's new inductees and was ready to become Erntz slave... UNTIL the last trial, where Erntz tells Marc that unless he kills the little girl they kidnapped as part of the last trial? They will kill Diatrice. And he is still "Better" than Jake.

Oh, Erntz also says that he “Seeded” the violence in Marc through “the undesirable” sources of Jake Lockley (You know, Gena and Crawley. Because Bemis is not classist at all)

ANYWAY, Marc obviously doesn’t want to kill the little girl -whom we don’t see at the moment because  Bemis thinks he’s clever- and in the Inner world? Jake Lockley, whom until Bemis got his grimy hands on him had ALWAYS been Moon Knight’s moral compass? ARGUES in FAVOR of killing an innocent, and YELLS at Marc for “taking” Diatrice  for himself because he’s the hero of the story, but still won’t do the “hard” thing to save her. Because Marc is a coward, and is going to leave the choice to Jake.

And while JAKE also decides NOT to kill the little girl? The narration immediately switches it to MARC in control again as the defender of said girl.

Because Bemis can’t let Jake be good.

So... here are the only TWO good pages of #200 in my opinion. Diatrice's fan art of her family, and Sienkiewicz's final pinup.

And so, Moon Knight #200 ends up a mess, where while the System is still a System? There’s nothing of real substance from the last 12 issues. Yes, we now have the “almost victim of a hate crime” origin for the boys, but that was one issue. Oh, and the meme panels of the guys inner world. But as far as story goes? This is the worst let down after the high soar that was Lemire’s run because we have nothing that will last.

Sun King and his connection with Ra? Will never get mentioned again. The Moon Knight cult will have a role in the next Arc, which will take us to the Avengers’ book rather than Moon Knight’s next title (The far better Mackay run in 2021, which, while no Lemire and with its own problems, is HEAPS better than Bemis). The Truth? Gone. And, even worse, Marlene and Diatrice? Will pack up their bags and leave Moon Knight due to the events of our next arc. So really, all that we have from Bemis is what I mentioned which will not get repeated later as yeah, say bye to the System for a while too.

But once again, I am getting ahead of myself. See you next time as we enter the Age of Khonshu, in Avengers #33 to 38, and then back to Moon Knight for the Mackay run... Oh, and probably Devil's Reign. Sorry about THAT in advance)

[luxshine]

Moon Knight Primer Part Eleven

Moon Knight #4-5

Prologue, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X

Issues 4 and 5? Are a rollercoaster of emotions and we still haven’t left Marc’s mind! Again, this is one of the strengths of the Lemire run. We don’t have to worry about whatever is going on in the Marvel Universe at the time, whatever new crossover event is destroying the world (At the time we were just recuperating from the world-shattering event of Secret Was that sort of fused the 616-Universe, aka. The Official Marvel Universe, and the Ultimate Universe,  and was the reason why the origins of many heroes, including Moon Knight, were reshuffled and changed a bit, and just entering Civil War II which was such a mess, I am so glad the boys were busy dealing with themselves instead of with that, as THAT ruined many characters that are just now recovering)

Also, these two issues cement the main theme that we’re dealing with: how Marc is not alone in his mind, even when he thinks he is, and talking control of one’s life despite the challenges. We saw how we lost Crawley in the last issue, as he sacrificed himself to let the group escape. Seven pages into issue four? We lose Jean Paul to a cop who is really Sobek, son of Seth, in disguse. Important thing, Sobek calls Marc “Son of Khonshu” which is, again, something exclusive to this series. Before this, no one had called Marc this, not even the same priests who used to call Hawkeye (Clint Barton) “Beloved of Khonshu”.

At least in his head? Marc gets some respect.

Anyway, Sobek bites Jean Paul on the yugular, and that is not a survivable wound, so Marc kills Sobek with his bare hands, but is on time to hear Jean Paul’s last words (And, most importantly, take off the Mr. Knight mask, so that Jean Paul can see him)

Jean Paul’s last words? Are to call Marc “Mr. Knight” and tell him that yes, he sees that the cop is Sobek.

And THIS is important because before this? EVEN in Marc’s mind? Jean Paul had never acknowledged the name of Mr. Knight. Which paralleled very well the relationship Jean Paul, the real Jean Paul, had with all of Marc’s Alters. Yes, he recognized they existed, he sometimes even paid lip service to their names, but for Jean Paul? Marc was always Marc, no matter who fronted. So this moment of acceptance? Is a goodbye for Marc. The idea that, if Jean Paul ever accepted them completely? They’d lose the old friendship they had. (Which, in a way, is true. When Jean Paul finally saw that Jake and Steven weren’t just names Marc adopted? Was when he finally left the mansion and went on to have his own life)

Anyway, two down, two to go.

With Jean Paul gone, Gena starts seeing the desert too but she’s too confused to really grasp what’s going on. Marc tells her that he’s glad she also sees what he sees, because he can stop what’s going on, but he can’t do it alone. He needs her, and she tells him that well, wherever Marc is going? Can’t be worse than where they are.

Marc once again, asks her to call him Mr. Knight.

Have you noticed how pretty much the whole four issues are Marc telling people to respect his identity? His chosen identity?

AS they walk into the now desert New York, Gena spots her diner and insists that they need to make a stop, regain their bearings, and get some food into their stomachs. At first, Marc is unsure, but he finally agrees. There, Gena comes a bit back to herself, the real Gena’s personality, which once again makes sense: Marc ONLY interacted with her there. And only saw her as the worried single mother who would do anything for her kids.

Which of course is why there, Gena finally starts calling him Mr. Knight without any extra prompting from Marc, reminding him that he is a good man. To which Marc replies that he is Nothing without his friends -something that we have seen Marc express before, even way back in the original Moench run: His sense of self sometimes depends a lot on how others see him.

In any case, this peace can’t last and when he’s on the bathroom -because Marc’s mind world is… pretty realistic- Khonshu interrupts to remind him that he has a mission and he’s weak, and of course Khonshu picked up the wrong person for the job. In short: THE EXACT Opposite of how he was last time we saw him. And he is still skechty and blotched, so we know he’s not how Marc sees Khonshu. He is just… very contradictory. Marc is starting to get tired of this attitude, but just as he tries to stand up for himself Gena calls him back to the diner as Marlene is FINALLY up and speaking, saying that they have to go before the sunrise.

Ironically, it seems the closer they get to the big Pyramid? The better Marlene feels. But Marc, on the other hand, feels that something is wrong there, very wrong. But he can’t just not go. Because he knows that what needs to be fixed? Is there.

Gena, for her part, tells him that her role in this is done, as she needs to stay and wait for her boys -boys who are NOT there because, ding-ding-ding, Marc NEVER interacted with them until the 2006 run killed Ray and left Ricky as the Jean Paul replacement. And This Marc? Is not THAT Marc. That Marc was incredibly unstable due to fronting all time, and trying to keep the others down. So of course, THIS Marc wouldn’t have a mind-template for Gena’s kids.

Three down, One to go.

On the path to the pyramid, Marc realizes that the flying jackals want him to go to the top, so they don’t attack.  Marlene also tells him she remembers everything they lived together, she and Marc, she and STEPHEN Grant (yes, with a PH, and not a V, and I haven’t found a single shred of evidence that it was JUST a typo and not a clue that something was very wrong with Marlene right there), and him as Moon Knight.

No Jake though, and remember how I told you all that Jake was a non-entity for Marlene? And how it annoyed Steven and Jake? Well, here’s proof of it.

Anyway, they reach the base of the pyramid only to be stopped by Moon Knight. The ORIGINAL suit Moon Knight too, who tells Marc to stop, and that he’s insane.

And THAT’s how issue four ends. What a cliffhanger, right? (Importantly? Parts of Moon Knight look completely sketched out, as if he was done with pencils unlike the rest of, well, everything)

Issue 5 begins with Moon Knight convincing Marlene to come with him, as Mr. Knight, our Marc, is not amused and demands to know who he is. Moon Knight replies that he is Marc Spector, the one from before Marc lost his mind and the only one who can stop what is going on. Now, very importantly: He doesn’t say that he is the REAL Marc, but the SANE Marc. Even in his mind, even fractured? Marc knows he and his alters are real. Or at least, subconsciously he knows it because he’s not, at least at this moment, aware of Jake and Steven.

And he is ANGRY at being called Insane, so he stabs “sane” Marc with a moon crescent, but Moon Knight headbutts him and manages to run away with Marlene.

And here once again I remind you: This is not REAL Marlene betraying Marc for an illusion of a “normal” Marc (Not a Sane one, because as our Marc says, the System is NOT Insane), but Marc’s mental image of Marlene. Who OF COURSE was going to leave him the second she was offered an out, a man who was not a System, a man who wasn’t constantly running into danger.

Not only that, but consider how he lost his allies: Crawley sacrificed himself to help the greater good, Jean Paul got killed because Marc got sloppy. Gena choose to stay behind, but didn’t betray Marc.

Marlene? Marlene ran away with a “better” version of Marc.

Anyone else wants to hug Marc?

Marc runs after them, but when he crosses a door with a crescent on it… we’re suddenly in a completely different landscape, drawn by a completely different artist.

James Stokoe is the artist here, and we’re on the moon. Marc is wearing a space suit very similar to his black armor version, and he can see a trail of footprints and blood leading to a door with a half moon on it. But when he starts walking towards it… he’s almost ambushed by werewolves.

Interestingly, THIS section has panels, but the borders are very, very faint. As if reality was unsure of it being reality.

He manages to cross the door, and we change realities again. And AGAIN we have borders, only these are a bit more clear.  A bit more comic-booky. And the art changes again, this time by Wilfredo Torres, with a cleaner style than Stokoe who is very anime influenced. There he meets with Marlene, who is calling him Steven, with a V, and is wearing the Stained Glass Scarlet costume, as she is an actress in the Grant-produced Moon Knight movie. Before Steven -because this is Steven- can get his bearings, Marlene tells him to run as Billy and Bobby, our favorite Jackal nurses, appear in human form and are chasing Steven.

Steven runs through the door Marlene pointed to, marked with a Half moon in the oppositeside of the original he crossed, and we’re back in a borderless world, only this time is NOT Marc’s world, but the far more gritty and comic-book looking world of Jake Lockley, this time drawn by Fransesco Francavilla.

Coloring, by the way, also changes between worlds. The Moon world is washed in blues, while the Grant world is warmth and colored in a sort of animation cel style. Jake’s? Is all high contrasts, in a very seventies style.

Jake finds a last crescent door, but he’s almost stopped by Billy and Bobby who come out from a sewer and try to put him to sleep to take “Spector” back to dr. AMMUT (yep, The System’s mind is done with pretending)  

He manages to cross the last crescent door, and we’re back to Smallwood’s art, no panel borders and Mr. Knight.

Oh, and Marc is facing a chained Seth, who calls him “Khonshu’s Pup” and is very clearly not the one in charge of the madness that is going around, given that he is a) Chained, and b) ALSO part of Marc’s mindscape since he is not colored, inked or drawn differently.

Following Seth’s directions, he climbs the last set of stairs as he removes the Mr. Knight mask only to meet face to face with the bleeding Moon Knight he faced at the beginning of the chapter, who congratulates him on managing to arrive there. And as Marc demands to know who Moon Knight really is, the man takes off his mask to reveal…

Khonshu.

Khonshu, who unlike Set? Is drawn in the sketchy, blurry style of the Otherworld to point out that he? Is an outsider to Marc’s mindscape.

Which becomes even more obvious when he reveals why he was testing Marc, the real reason for all this journey. See? Khonshu’s body in the othervoid is dying. And, in order to stay alive? Khonshu wants to take over the Moon System’s human one.

In exchange? Marc will be at peace. No more pain, no more “Weakness”, no more being “broken” (as Khonshu keeps calling Marc, over and over again. There was only ONE time in this whole five issue run when he didn’t, which is quite suspicious, don’t you think? The one time when he told Marc to embrace himself, to believe in his own mind, and to follow his instincts. A very helpful little bird, unlike this one)

And Marc? Faithful Marc, who has believed every word of Khonshu so far?

Says NO.

And because he knows he can’t fight Khonshu, he can’t fight a God, even a Dying one?  He jumps off the pyramid, ready to die, as he remembers his friends smiling at Gena’s diner.

And dies before letting Khonshu have his body.

Only to wake up as Steven, in his mansion, drawn again by Wilfredo Torres and with the warm, soft color palette and the soft black panel borders,  with Marlene, who says she’s an actress, and he is a producer, that they’re shooting the pyramid scene now.

And Steven? Steven smiles at the skyline while a tear falls down his right eye.

So… Did Marc die and let Steven get the body before letting Khonshu have it? Did any of this happen?  What the hell is going on?

Well, for that, we need to go to the NEXT arc of the Lemire’s run, still written by Lemire, and MAINLY drawn by Smallwood (Although Torres, Stokoe and Francavilla will remain with us for a while), titled “Incarnations” That only lasts from issues 6 to 10 to complete the first 10 issues of the Lemire run.

But that? Is for part 12.

(I'm adding the covers because a)they're so pretty, and b) look at the symbolism! Marc letting go of the illusions, of the pain, and revealing that under all that? He's more than just Marc Spector!)

[luxshine]

I am DONE with the Lemire run in the Moon Knight primer!

And, wanna know how full of symbolism and important stuff it is? Well, the whole run is JUST 14 issues. And it takes over 5 parts of the primer, from 9 to 13.

The WHOLE of Marc Spector: Moon Knight? was 60 issues and I covered it in ONE part.

But yeah, if you REALLY want to know where pretty much 90% of the characterization from the series came from? The Lemire Run

Links here, because I am nice!

Part 9, The Lemire Run begins here

Part 10, The Lemire Run continues

Part 11, The Lemire Run (end of the first arc)

Part 12 The Lemire Run second act (TW: Integration talk)

Part 13 The Lemire Run third act and conclusion.

Oh, and some of the gorgeous covers, because man, Greg Smallwood draws some amazing covers of our beloved system.

Oh, and the one poster he made, inspired by the Series, that was Inspired by his art!

[luxshine]

Ok, so I have written SO MUCH meta about Moon Knight, that I thought it was about time I put it in one easily accessible page if you are in my actual tumblr page.

Also, easier for me to reach for links.

This is, of course, the hub for the Primer. This is where I am going to put ALL things of the PRimer. Plus, the reasoning behind why I am writing it to be a tool for all Moon Knight fans :) And have pretty pictures.

Page with the rest of my meta, coming soon, as soon as I hunt it all down!

As I realize this only links to my main page of my blog, the ACTUAL link would be

luxshine . tumblr . com / Moonknightprimer